Patient-on-patient violence at Austin State Hospital has soared more than 170 percent over the past five years, one of the most dramatic increases in a system seeing an escalating number of such episodes at all of its inpatient psychiatric facilities.

According to an American-Statesman analysis, incidents of violence at all of the state-run hospitals have increased 22 percent since 2008, rising from 2,700 to 3,300 in fiscal 2012.

Hospital staffers are also being injured by patients. Although the overall number of patient-inflicted injuries has hovered at about 2,000 over the past five years, workers’ compensation claims by hospital staffers have increased 40 percent, rising from 448 in 2008 to 629 in 2012.

Read More: Austin American-Statesman